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Commentary and links to news of the wonderful, weird, interesting and cutting edge through the lens of our Catholic faith. Updated daily by Our Sunday Visitor staff. Email us with question or comments or link suggestions: feedback@osv.com.
No reason for concern New York Times (registration site) Papal biographer John Allen writes that Pope Benedict XVI’s forthcoming moto proprio on the Tridentine Mass will upset both “liberal” and “conservative” camps in the Church. However, “[Pope] Benedict, a quintessential realist, will probably be among the few who understand right away that his ruling is not terribly earth-shattering. Sources close to the pope I have spoken to say his modest ambition is that over time, the old Mass will exert a ‘gravitational pull’ on the new one, drawing it toward greater sobriety and reverence.”
It’s still illegal to be Christian in Malaysia BBC.com Malaysia's highest court has rejected a Muslim convert's six-year battle to be legally recognized as a Christian. A three-judge panel ruled that only the country's Sharia Court could let Azlina Jailani, now known as Lina Joy, remove the word Islam from her identity card. Joy is a convert to Christianity. Malaysia's constitution guarantees freedom of worship but says all ethnic Malays are Muslim. Under Sharia law, Muslims are not allowed to convert.
Yes, Jesus can sell novels Washington Post (registration site) Ron Charles reviews Tim Farrington’s sequel to his popular “The Monk Downstairs.” The new novel, titled “The Monk Upstairs” continues featuring prayer and faith in Jesus and a main character who loves the Catholic Church. The popular secular novel is unique because it includes these things in a genre that usually avoids them despite the fact that the majority of Americans say they pray, according to Charles.
Egg quandary Los Angeles Times (registration site) A case now rests with the Supreme Court of Texas where a couple is fighting over what should be done with embryos they created before deciding to divorce. It is one of a number of divorce cases nationwide in which the custody dispute has revolved around embryos (fertilized eggs) that are considered — by most states, at least — to be property and not human life. The U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults states that “human life begins at conception, the moment that the egg is fertilized.” Advances in assisted reproduction have created a legal landscape that judges and lawmakers could hardly have envisioned before 1984, when an Australian baby became the first created from a frozen embryo (the first U.S. birth came two years later).
Fleeing for safety Chiesa.org In Iraq’s bloody war, which is being fought primarily by Muslim groups against other Muslims and “infidels,” the Iraqi Christians are the only ones who are not using weapons or bombs, not even to defend themselves. There aren’t any armed Christian militias in Iraq. In fact, they are the most vulnerable and persecuted group. In 2000, they were more than a million and a half, 3 percent of the population. Today it is estimated that fewer than 500,000 remain.
Did the pope have any influence? BBC.com Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has introduced a $51 million plan to subsidize birth control pills in the world’s largest Catholic country. He said the program would give the poor the same right as the wealthy to have the number of children they want. The initiative comes just two weeks after Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Brazil, when he urged Catholics to maintain traditional family values.
America’s quasi Catholics Monterey Herald We are in the midst of an economic boom among quasi-religious Catholics, writes New York Times’ columnist David Brooks. A generation ago, Catholic incomes and economic prospects were well below the national average. But the past few decades have seen enormous Catholic social mobility. According to Lisa Keister, a sociologist at Duke, non-Hispanic white Catholics have watched their personal wealth shoot upward. They have erased the gap that used to separate them from mainline Protestants. But from a Church perspective, this is not a good thing. We may be making lots of money, but we are not sure who we are these days.
Vatican going ‘green’ Catholic News Service A giant rooftop garden of solar panels will be built next year on top of the Paul VI audience hall at the Vatican, creating enough electricity to heat, cool and light the entire building year-round. “Solar energy will provide all the energy (the building) needs," said the mastermind behind the environmentally friendly project, Pier Carlo Cuscianna, head of the Vatican's department of technical services. Future projects using solar energy are planned.
Bishops respond to pro-abortion Dems U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops The 18 Democrats who recently criticized Pope Benedict XVI when he answered questions about Mexico’s legalizing abortion both misrepresented the pope’s remarks and defied freedom of speech and freedom of religion. The position was noted by Sister Mary Ann Walsh, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ director of media relations, in a May 18 statement.
A few good men USAToday Among the 475 priests expected to be ordained in the U.S. by the Catholic Church in the next few weeks, 9 percent have been touched by the Iraq war or served in the military before answering a call to serve the Church, according to a survey by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Among the military veterans, more than one-third served in the Air Force.
World’s poor Christian Science Monitor The controversy over the management of the World Bank with Paul Wolfowitz’s resignation has turned attention to the purpose and effectiveness of the institution. Founded after World War II, the bank’s purpose is to help fight world poverty. But the Christian Science Monitor asks if it has gotten off track in its mission and if it is relevant today since private aid from nongovernmental organizations and religious groups, as well as big-money philanthropy and "social" investment funds, are now effective in supporting such ventures as education or water projects.
What Catholics don’t know Catholic News Service Only one-third of Catholics in a national survey said they had heard of the U.S. bishops' policies to prevent child sex abuse and respond to abuse allegations, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate said last week. Only one-sixth said they have heard of the abuse prevention programs in their own diocese, it added. We’re religiously illiterate Religion and Ethics Newsweekly The new book “Religious Literacy” charges that most Americans are illiterate about the Bible and the major world religions. The author, Stephen Prothero, is the chair of the religion department at Boston University and says most Americans cannot name the first book of the Bible -- Genesis, and can name only one of the four Gospels. He says 60 percent cannot name five of the Ten Commandments.
Pro-abortion supporters attack Justice Christianity Today After the Supreme Court recently upheld the ban on partial-birth abortion, abortion supporters attacked Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy for taking into account mental and emotional health too much in his majority opinion. Kennedy and Ruth Bader Ginsberg came down on opposite sides of the partial-birth abortion decision, but Christianity Today reports that both seem uncomfortable -- if for different reasons -- with the reasoning of Roe vs. Wade that originally allowed abortion on demand. As support for Roe's reasoning wanes, the real legal debate now concerns what abortion supporters will try to replace it with.
What is excommunication? IgnatiusInsight.com Canon lawyer and civil-law expert Ed Peters explains the Church act of excommunication. He says that excommunication is the most misunderstood and misrepresented topic that canon lawyers have to deal with. The topic of excommunication was in the news recently when Mexican politicians, who are Catholic, who voted in favor of legalized abortion in Mexico City.
Democrats balk at pope's comments, again USAToday A group of 18 Catholic House Democrats publicly disputed Pope Benedict XVI's recent condemnation of Mexican politicians who support abortion rights, saying that "such notions offend the very nature of the American experiment." Catholic Democrats who are pro-abortion have balked at this teaching of the Church for some time. OSV published an editorial on the subject in our May 27 edition.
Russian Orthodox churches reunite BBC.com The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad has reunited with the Russian Orthodox Church after 80 years of schism sparked by the Bolshevik revolution. Talks to re-establish ties between the Russian Orthodox Church in exile and its mother church began soon after the collapse of the USSR, which ignited a revival of organized religion in Russia.
Choosing abortion to save scholarships Concord Monitor Many colleges and universities have policies requiring female athletes lose scholarships if they get pregnant. Under these rules, women are choosing abortions over the prospect of losing money for tuition. Dropping scholarships for this reason "is an entirely legal thing and within NCAA rules," said Barbara Osborne, a lawyer and assistant professor of sports law research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. But many schools continue scholarships for students temporarily sidelined by accidents, illness or other medical conditions, Osborne said, and some are developing programs to assist pregnant athletes to help them stay in college.
OSV on Benedict's new book OSV.com Contributing editor for Our Sunday Visitor Russell Shaw offers an analysis of Pope Benedict's new book "Jesus of Nazareth," which was released yesterday.
Jesus can save Latin America Chiesa Online Pope Benedict's speech to Latin American bishops last week will be remembered in the future as the one most revealing of the pope's objectives. For the pope, a strong effort of evangelization is the real response to the attacks against the family, to the crimes against life, to the abandoning of Catholicism in favor of the new evangelical and Pentecostal sects. This message could be applied here in the United States where similar trends exist.
Is the pro-life movement in decline? Washington Times (registration site) Although last month's Supreme Court ruling to uphold the ban on partial-birth abortion was a welcome boost for pro-life forces, they are still recovering from last year's defeats in the elections, the newspaper says in a series on the future of the traditional-values movement. In this series, they ask the question "Has America's pro-life movement lost its clout?"
Benedict on Jesus Ethics and Public Policy Center George Weigel, a senior fellow of Washington's Ethics and Public Policy Center and a papal biographer, reviews Pope Benedict's new book “Jesus of Nazareth.” The English version of the book is released today in the United States. Our Sunday Visitor will have an analysis of the book by contributing editor Russell Shaw in our May 27 edition.
Money and power can kill Los Angeles Times (registration site) A rancher accused of masterminding the slaying of a U.S.-born Catholic nun went on trial Monday in a case widely viewed as a test of the impunity long enjoyed by wealthy Brazilian landowners in the Amazon. Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura is one of two cattlemen charged with ordering the 2005 killing of Sister Dorothy Stang, 73, who had over decades become a champion of poor settlers of the Amazon.
God missing in weddings Bustedhalo.com In a review of the new book “One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding” by Rebecca Mead, Christine Whelan notes the decline of religious ceremonies for weddings. In a chapter titled “God and the Details,” Mead, a writer for the New Yorker, points out how the religious and sacramental part of planning a wedding has fallen by the wayside.
Earmarking religion New York Times (registration site) Religious organizations have long competed for federal contracts to provide social services, and they have tried to influence Congress on matters of moral and social policy ? indeed, most major denominations have a presence in Washington to monitor such legislation. An analysis of federal records shows that some religious organizations are also hiring professional lobbyists to pursue the narrowly tailored individual appropriations known as earmarks. Observers are lining up on both sides of this analysis debating whether it?s a good or bad thing. Earmarks for religious organizations make up only a small portion of ones doled out each year by Congress.
Organ donation Religion and Ethics Weekly Each year in the United States there are 29,000 organ transplants. All of the major faith traditions support the practice of organ donation and view it as an act of compassion, but the relationship between donor families and the recipients of their loved one's organs is complex and emotional, involving both gratitude and guilt.
Kids bad for the environment? London Sunday Times A report released last week in Australia said having large families should be frowned upon as an environmental misdemeanor in the same way as frequent long-haul flights, driving a big car and failing to reuse plastic bags. The paper by the Optimum Population Trust said that if couples had two children instead of three they could cut their family's carbon dioxide output by the equivalent of 620 return flights a year between London and New York . What the report does not acknowledge is that children, as opposed to plastic bags or jet travel, may grow up to help solve the environmental problems being deplored.
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